The communications industry is rapidly changing to adjust to emerging technologies and ever increasing customer demand. This customer demand for new applications and increased performance of existing applications is driving communications network and system providers to employ networks and systems having greater speed and capacity (e.g., greater bandwidth). In trying to achieve these goals, a common approach taken by many communications providers is to use packet switching technology, including switching packets on labels especially in the core network using Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS).
Tunnels, such as MPLS-TE (Traffic Engineering) and MPLS-TP (Transport Profile), are paths established through a network in order to transport packets efficiently through a label switched network. Fast Re-Route (FRR) is a technology that allows backup paths to be established in the network, which can be used in case of a problem with a primary path (original primary path or currently used backup path) of the tunnel. RFC 4090, entitled “Fast Reroute Extensions to RSVP-TE for LSP Tunnels,” provides an extension of the protocol signaling to establish backup label switched path (LSP) tunnels for local repair of LSP tunnels.